Tag: diversity visa lottery

Diversity Visa Lottery: LEGAL immigration program allows 50,000 into US each year because we don't have enough diversity!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have written a little bit over the years about the truly outrageous ‘Diversity Visa Lottery,’ sometimes referred to as the ‘Green card lottery.’
I’m writing about it now so that our many new readers understand that it isn’t just the Refugee Admissions Program that is allowing immigrants into the US who could potentially threaten our security in addition to competing with Americans for limited job opportunities.

Obama with Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. “The Green Card Lottery has really been the African Green Card Lottery.” In 2009 Lee attempted to change the Diversity lottery by adding another 50,000 which would have brought 100,000 annual “winners” to America. http://newafricanmagazine.com/will-green-card-lottery-get-red-card/

The program, like the Refugee resettlement program, is the brainchild of Senator Ted Kennedy and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Beginning in 1996 we began offering 50,000 slots (it can be confusing because some reports say 55,000) for legal immigration to the US in a lottery system that is shocking when you begin to examine it.   It’s primary purpose is to increase our diversity!
We sure did increase our diversity as 1 million LEGAL immigrants entered the US in the last 20 years as a result of the Kennedy/Bush lottery.

The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States in the previous five years.

Unsuccessful efforts have been made in recent years to kill it, but among the programs great supporters are the very same federal refugee resettlement contractors we write about every day.  Every time Congress has advanced bills to cut the lottery or cut its funding, who pops up to defend it?  The VOLAGS!
One would think they might be concerned about increasing competition from the lottery winners for the scarce jobs that their refugees desperately need!  Guess not!

If you would like to check it out yourselves, just type in one of the contractor’s names along with ‘diversity visa lottery’ and you will get lots of testimony and lots of lobbying by the contractors to keep the lottery alive.

New York Uzbek’s largely here thanks to Diversity Visa Lottery

What got me thinking about it this morning was a New York Times piece about ten days ago entitled:

Accusations of Terrorism Worry Brooklyn’s Uzbek Community

We learned that a large number of New York City’s Uzbek (mostly Muslim) immigrants came in through the lottery.  However, we have also admitted Uzbek’s as refugees and have had some terror busts involving those.  Here is one in Idaho.

Immigrants from Uzbekistan have been arriving in New York with help from a diversity visa lottery program, which the United States government created in 1990 to foster immigration from countries with previously low rates. The State Department issues 55,000 green cards every year through its diversity visa program and for the 2014-15 year, 4,368 were allotted to Uzbek lottery winners, the department said.  [It was 5,101 in 2013, see below—-ed]

In my quick search I couldn’t find the 2014 “winners,” but here are the 2013 lucky ducks!   I’ve selected some of the countries (those with the largest number of winners) from which “enrichment” has arrived on our shores.  (See this commentary about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops going to bat for the lottery in Congressional testimony).  Remember this line when you look at the list!

….a diverse pool of immigrants makes our nation a culturally richer place.  [Who says so?—ed]

Selected entrants—2013

Here (and below) are the largest ethnic groups given green cards after winning the lottery in 2013:
Africa:

Algeria (2,161)

Cameroon (3,858)

DR Congo (3,924)

Egypt (5,015)

Ethiopia (4,910)

Ghana (5,105)

Kenya (4,410)

Morocco (2,068)

Nigeria (6,218)

Sierra Leone (2,516)

Togo (1,065)

Asia:

Iran (6,029)

Nepal (4,370)

Europe:

Albania (1,520)

Armenia (1,174)

Belarus (1,195)

Bulgaria (1,299)

Poland (2,038)

Russia (2,846)

Turkey (1,807)

Ukraine (6,424)

Uzbekistan (5,101)

The next time you hear an elected official mouth this foolish line know that he or she doesn’t know what the heck they are talking about!

I’m o.k. with legal immigration, but it is illegal immigration I have a problem with!

To learn more, we have a category on the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery’ here.

Open season begins Oct. 1 for FY2015 Diversity Visa Lottery

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I bet most of you reading RRW don’t know about this ‘ingenious’ (not!) lottery program the US State Department has been running for years (Congress made them do it!).  You see we don’t have enough diversity in America’s immigrant population so each year the State Department selects 55,000 people (through a lottery system) who can legally come from around the world to live and work in America .

Cool graphic from 2009 Diversity Visa Lottery, most winners come from Africa and Middle East

However, once the number of immigrants from a certain country tops 50,000 in the previous 5 years, that country’s citizens are cut off from putting their name in the hat.

The program, sometimes called the Green Card lottery, began in 1995, see history here.

The State Department website is here.  The countries and number of ‘winners’ for FY 2013 are here.

Nigeria (others) has been cut off for FY2015 and that is the subject of this short article at
Afrique Jet Actualité en Lignesubject.

BTW, I’m pretty sure the Gang of Eight’s Senate bill on “immigration reform” drops this program, but at the moment I can’t remember and am too lazy to go look it up (especially since the bill may be dying in this Congress).  Supposedly the entrants under the Diversity lottery program are somewhat educated and come with some job training/experience (because Congress thinks we need more foreign workers to compete with Americans along with bringing the joys of multiculturalism to your towns and cities).

Nigeria barred from US visa lottery – Nigeria has been barred from the 2015 US Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, according to the US State Department.

It said Nigeria was excluded from the DV-2015 because over 50,000 of its citizens have immigrated into the US in the last five years on the strength of the programme.

‘For DV-2015, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam,’ the State Department said on its official website.

The DV 2015 Programme will begin 1 Oct. 2013 and run through 2 Nov. 2013.

PANA reports that the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, which is administered annually by the  Department of State, provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US.

The next time you hear someone (especially a Republican) say “legal immigration is fine, it’s illegal immigration I have a problem with” remember this LEGAL program and know that they don’t know what they are talking about!

Egyptian wanted in Tennessee for questioning in murder of wife

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Subheading #1: Meat packer brings the joys of multiculturalism to small town America!

Subheading #2: Nashville famous for its diversity.

Subheading #3: Did David Lubell and the folks at ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ know this creep?

Subheading #4: The murdered wife worked at a Nashville hotel—surely it wasn’t Loews Vanderbilt? (just wondering!)

Alaa Youssef went to Egypt with his young daughters after allegedly depositing his wife’s body to rot along a highway in Kentucky.

Diversity is strength alert! Youssef is suspected of killing his wife with blunt force trauma to the head and fleeing to Egypt with young daughters.

He worked in Shelbyville, TN  at Tyson Foods (although most news accounts are leaving out the Shelbyville/Tyson Foods connection).  Hmmmm!

For longtime readers of RRW, do you remember the controversy back in February 2009 when Egyptian diversity visa lottery winners were being bused from Nashville to compete for jobs with Americans lined up at Tyson Foods?  When I saw this AP story (thanks to a friend from Tennessee), I wondered if he was one of the winners (or perhaps the now dead wife was the lottery winner).

Here is the AP story at Kentucky.com:

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Nashville man who fled to Egypt with his two children was charged on Thursday with criminal homicide in the death of his wife.

The body of 27-year-old Madiha Roshdy was found last month by a highway mowing crew in Kentucky, but authorities were unable to identify her until this week.

She was not reported missing until June 20 after a friend learned that family members in Egypt were worried about her.

Police searched the couple’s Nashville apartment and the car belonging to the husband, 39-year-old Alaa Youssef. Police believe it is likely that Roshdy was killed at the apartment a few days before her body was found May 29 along the northbound lanes of Interstate 65, north of Elizabethtown, Ky. That is some 115 miles north of Nashville.

She died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Roshdy last reported for work at a Nashville hotel on May 25. She was last seen by neighbors on May 26.

Youssef, who worked for Tyson Foods in Shelbyville, flew out of Nashville with the couple’s two young daughters on June 7. They arrived in Cairo on June 8.

Police have begun preliminary discussions with the U.S. Justice Department about the international issues presented by the case.

Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said he did not know whether Roshdy and Youssef were Egyptian citizens.

They are not likely refugees (they could be asylees), but apparently gained entry to the US through some LEGAL immigration program—diversity visa lottery is a possibility, but surely Tyson Foods has some record of Youssef’s immigration papers!  Or, didn’t they even ask.

Changing the subject (slightly!)—be sure to see Senator Jeff Sessions calls out the meat packers as major players behind-the-scenes on amnesty bill (S.744).

Worldwide angst over possible end to Diversity Visa Lottery

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ahhhh! Whole villages in Ethiopia are sweating, Korean Pop Stars groupies are worried and so is the Soros-funded Center for American Progress that the Gang of Eight plus Grover Senate immigration bill (S.744) would abolish the “popular” program to bring more diversity to your American towns via a lottery.

Rep Donald M. Payne, Jr. from Newark, NJ: Not enough poor Africans are getting to my district! (he didn’t say that, I did!)

Note to readers:  These are not refugees we are writing about, they are 55,000 lucky lottery winners each year from countries where we don’t get enough immigrants.  This is not a joke!  I am not kidding!

Go here to see where your town’s diversity winners are coming from.

If you aren’t a regular reader of Korean Pop Entertainment news you would have no idea about the stressed-out Ethiopians or the New Jersey Congressman who says we aren’t letting enough Africans into the US.

Here is the story from KPopStarz about the “green card lottery:”

The green card lottery, a method through which at least 8 million foreigners wish to obtain their legal permanent residency, has been confirmed not to be cancelled for 2013 and 2014.

Although the odds of winning the green card lottery are not great, foreign hopefuls still have a chance of winning their legal status with a green card.

Just a few weeks ago, there was much speculation that the green card lottery would be taken away this year and that it was likely to be quietly cut. However, the US Embassy Press Secretary confirmed on Thursday that the green card application program will continue as usual for this year and next year.

According to the Armenpress on Thursday, US Embassy Press Secretary Taguhi Jahukyan said, “The Diversity Visa Program is continuing as usual for fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2014.”

While Congress has been discussing changes to immigration policy through new immigration bills, President Obama has not yet signed any immigration bill into law.

As the legislative process for changes in immigration policy is ongoing, no comment has been made on whether the green card lottery will continue onto 2015.

Just last year, at least 8 million foreigners submitted a green card application through the green card lottery. Only 55,000 green card applications were able to obtain a green card for themselves, their spouses, and their children.

The green card lottery is extremely popular, and foreigners would be very disappointed if the lottery program had been removed.

One green card lottery winner from Ethiopia said, “In my country, whole cities wait to hear the results of this lottery. I can’t believe they would take it away.”

The Diversity Visa Lottery Program, which issues winners a U.S. green card, started in 1995. Since then, thousands of foreigners have been granted immigrant visas and green cards.

One New Jersey House Representative, Donald Payne Jr. supported the continuance of the green card lottery program saying, “Diversity visas are one of the few ways people from Africa and the Caribbean can come to this country.”  [I guess the Congressman doesn’t know about refugee resettlement and asylum—ed]

You know it’s a bad program if the Center for American Progress (read all about CAP here) wants desperately to save it!

Here is what they say in an introduction to an informative “Infographic” (AN END TO DIVERSITY?—Ahhhhhh!):

The immigration reform bill currently being debated in the U.S. Senate, however, would eliminate the diversity-visa program and grant those who are eligible a small number of points in the new merit-based green-card allocations—explained in the infographic below. Without this visa category, immigration from certain low-sending regions would diminish further and would undermine the goal of welcoming immigrants from diverse backgrounds. The infographic below portrays the current distribution of diversity visas and highlights the disproportionate effect that the elimination of this category would have on migration from Africa.

Tell Rep. Payne that there are 100,000 plus Africans arriving in the US each year according to this useful graphic from CAP.  Eliminating the Diversity Visa could knock that number down by 20,000, but they will surely be picked up through whatever changes are made to immigration by the Gang (unfortunately, you can count on that):

We need more diversity from Kyrgyzstan, says Gang of Eight bill

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday the Daily Caller alerted us to another section of the monster “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that relates to the already existent DIVERSITY Visa Lottery.  Yes, you have the right.  We have another LEGAL immigration program that brings in 50,000 or so “diverse” immigrants a year so that we assure what?—DIVERSITY in our immigrant populations.

We need to be sure we have a representative sample of people from Kyrgyzstan in America. Diversity is beautiful! Right?

Regular readers here may know that Virginia Republican, Robert Goodlatte, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has for years tried to kill this ridiculous fraud-ridden lottery.

Here is what the Daily Caller reports on the “reforms” to be made via the Gang of Eight bill to the Diversity Visa Lottery:

The Senate’s pending immigration bill would give an advantage to people seeking to immigrate from Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet republic that provided passports to the two ethnic Chechens who allegedly bombed Boston.

As part of a compromise that would replace the current “Diversity Lottery” program, countries with low rates of immigration to the United Sates — including Kyrgyzstan and Russia — would be awarded five points.

The five-point bonus could have a significant influence on who gets to live among 310 million Americans, because only the top-scoring applicants in the bill’s new merit-based immigration system would be granted green cards.

This system would give a person with a Kyrgyzstan passport an advantage over otherwise equally qualified people from countries like Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil. Those countries do not qualify for the bonus because they send large numbers of people to the United States.

The same bonus is also offered to people from a series of unstable countries that are not covered by the Diversity Lottery, a State Dept. program that annually offers 55,000 green cards to people in countries that send few immigrants to the United States.

Those countries include Egypt, Libya, Somalia and Tunisia, as well as countries alongside the war-wrecked Chechen homeland in the Caucasus mountains.

We have resettled over 100,000 Somalis through Refugee Resettlement, so why are they allowed to participate in the Lottery?

All of our posts on the Boston refugee bombers are here.